The Asiatic Annual Register, Or, A View of the History of Hindustan, and ..., 9권

OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFT, No. 128. performed without the assistance of a military officer. 82. The appointment was not solicited by captain Hook; on the contrary, when it was first proposed to that officer to accept of a situation in the office of the secretary to the government, he held an appointment in the office of the adjutant-general, and requested permission to decline the proposed appointment. The reasons, however, which occasioned the proposal to be made to captain Hook to accept of a situation in the office of the secretary to the government, had con- siderably increased, and had become of an urgent nature. The proposal , was consequently renewed, in consequence of which captain Hook relinquished the situation which he held in the adjutant-general’s office, and consequently his views of preferment in that branch of the service, for the purpose of affording his assistance in the performance of the business in the military department of the government. Every fact now detailed to exhibit the grounds of the proceedings of the governor-general in council, affords additional proof of the necessity of the measure of employing a military officer in the situation to secretary of the government in the military department. 83. The court, in their orders for captain Hook's removal, had observed, that the “reasons stated in lord Cornwallis's letter of the 6th of March, 1788, which induced the court to yield to his lordship's recommendation in favour of a military officer being appointed secretary to the military board, do not apply to the case of the secretary to the government in the military department, particularly as the returns of the army and lists which where formerly transmitted to Europe, by the late lieut.-Col. Kyd, are now transmit- ted by the adjutant-general and town-major.” 84. It does not appear that the letter from lord Cornwallis, referred to by the court, was recorded on the proceedings of the government. Similar reasons, however, to those assigned by his lordship in council in his minute, recorded on the proceedings of the 7th September, 1792, for recommending the late captain Humphreys to be secretary to the military board, are perfectly applicable to the case of the military secre- tary to the government, the duties of which situation are certainly of much more importance to the public service, and to the interests of the honourable com- pany, than that of preparing lists and returns of the troops, which are now prepared in another department. 85. Some of the most important parts of the duty of the secretary to the government in the military department, are intimately connected with assisting and enabling the government to diminish the military expenses. It is his duty to point out to the notice of government charges in the military branch of expen- diture, not authorized by existing regul, tions; also such contingent charges as are either inadmissable, or which ought to be reduced, from being unreasonably or unusually high. $6. It may appear that those duties belong to the * C 2 military -

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OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT's DRAFF, No. 128. military board, and military auditor-general. ... o. checking and controlling the expenses of an establish- ment of such magnitude and extent, involving such a variety of details and military charges, which are brought under the notice of the gqvernor-general in council from various quarters, and often through other channels than the military board or military auditor- general, the daily services of a secretary competent to point out the nature of every charge, are absolutely required. In matters which may have come under the examination of the officers employed in the subor- ditate offices, much may escape the notice of those officers. But were it possible that nothing material should escape their notice, still it is of importance, and absolutely necessary, that the secretary to the govern- ment in the military department should thoroughly understand the nature of the details of the business. which it is his duty to submit to the government. 87. It is of the greatest importance to the gever- nor-general in council, and to the finances of the honourable company, that the government, by whom all these charges are ultimately passed or ejected. should have the assistance of a secretary capable do giving the fullest information upon this important part of his duty . The due and faithful performance of this part of the secretary's duty is unavoidably of a most invidious nature. 88. It is an undoubted fact, that the governor- general, and the members of council, must depend more upon the military secretary (provided the military •ecretary be perfect master .#, duties) for informa- tion respecting the duties which devolve upon the government in its military capacity, (particularly those connected with the military charges and with the discipline of the army) than upon the secretaries in any of the other departments, on the conduct and execution of the duties of those departments respec- tively. This species of dependence for information upon the military secretary will be found not to be mush aiminished by the presence of the commander in shief, who, from various causes, cannot be expected to furnish information upon points of detail, chiefly •f a local nature, not immediately within the province of his general duties. 89. The situation in which the company's civil ser- wants are employed from the time of their arrival in India, and the habits which they unavoidably and no- cessarily acquire in those employments, render it im- possible for them to possess that knowledge of the military branch of the service which is essentially ne- cessary to the proper performance of the duties of :** the government in the military depart- glent. is no imputation on the character of the sivil servants to declare, that they are not qualified te f. those duties, a knowledge of which can only e obtained in situations, from which they are pre- cluded, and in which they would not desire to serve. 90. It can scarcely be the intention of the court that the conduct and management of the details of the - duties COURT's DRAFT, No. 1-3.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT's DRAFT, - No. 128. duties of the supreme government in the military de- partment, should be entrusted to a person not qualified to perform them. But in what manner is the civil covenanted servant to acquire the knowledge indis- pensably necessary to enable him to discharge his duty as secretary in the military department He must attach hitself to the army, and appropriate ten, or twelve years of his time in acquiring a knowledge of the military regulations, and particularly of those complicat, 4, and intricate, and fluctuating, rules for the conduct of military finance, applicat,le to the pecu- liar nature of the army of Bengal, in all - branches. 91. It would also be necessary that several of the civil servants should be employed and educated in the manner above-described, otherwise the government would not possess a succession of civil servants, pro- perly qualified to fill the situation of secretary to government in the military department. 92. No length of service, in the usual duties of civil servants, nor even in the office of secretary to the government in the military department, can give a civil servant a thorough knowledge of the details indis- pensably necessary to the proper performance of the duties of the secretary in the military department; nor can a military officer conduct those duties pro- perly, unless he has previously studied the voluminous and varying code of military regulations, particularly those connected with military expenses. 93. To qualify a civil servant for the proper per- formance of the duties of secretary to the government in the military department, he must be furnished with a military commission, to enable him to attach himself to the army, and to be placed in those situations in which alone he can acquire that knowledge, which could render him competent to the discharge of the duties of secretary to the government in the military department. 94. The duties of the secretary to the government in the military department, have formerly been con- ducted without the assistance of 2 military officer; but the proceedings of government, which led to the revi- val of the employment of a military officer in the secretary's office, in the latter end of the year 1796, conformably to the principle originally established by the supreme government, and particularly adverted to by lord Cornwallis, in council, on the 31st January, 1788, furnish proofs of the necessity of the change, founded on a sufficient trial of a contrary system. 95. The reasons which compelled the government, in 1796, to revert to the principle above adverted to, are not specified in detail on the records. It is stated, in general terms, that the nature of the duties, and the great increase of business, in consequence of the new military arrangements, suggested the propriety of em- ploying a military officer. 96. The particular and constant difficulties which occurred to render the adoption of the measure neces- *ary, unquestionably were of a nature to preclude all *pe of conducting the business of government in the

military

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OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT's DRAFT, No. 128. .# department without the assistance of a military officer. 97. It is proper, however, to state, that, previously to the month of December, 1796, the period at which a military officer was employed to conduct the details of the business in the military department, it was frequently necessary to send privately many of the current papers which had been received by the government in the military department to the eficers of the general staff, and other staff-officers at the presidency, with a view to obtain information and assistance, for the purpose of enabling the government to pass orders upon the subject of those papers. The references which were thus made for information and assistance to the staff and other officers, must have frequently involved the consideration of subjects in which those officers were directly or remotely concerned, and upon which they had previously given an official opinion in their capacity of members of the military board, or as the heads of some departments or officers. To have recourse, therefore, to those officers for assistance, under such circumstances, was not only attended with delay, but was highly objectionable in its principle: but there was no remedy for this serious evil, excepting that which the government adopted, by employing a military officer for the conduct of the details of the business in the military department. 98. The ground of the proceedings of the supreme government, adverted to in the preceding paragraphs, for employing a military officer for the conduct of the details of the duties of the government in the military department, and the principles upon which those proceedings are founded, have been justified and confirmed by subsequent practice and experience: and the public service, and the interests of the honourable company, have derived the most substantial and important advantages from the measure, particularly with respect to the diminution at the close of the last war, in the year 1501-2, and on other occasions, of the military expenses of the presidency of Bengal, and to the constant revision of those expenses. But the court, in the 147th paragraph of the general letter to the supreme government in the military department, dated the 20th of June, 1804, observed, that the appointment of a military officer to be secretary to the government in the military department, was contrary to the spirit of the 57th section of the act of the 33d of his present majesty, cap. 52d. 99. The spirit of that act is to prevent unqualified persons foot. appointed to discharge the duties of civil offices and employments, &c. It is doubtful whether the office of secretary to the government in the military department comes within the letter of the act, as expressed in that clause, and is included in the description of officers, places, or employments, in the civil line of the company's service enumerated in the clause. 100. It may also be doubted, whether the legislature had the office of secretary to the government in the military

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OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT's DRAFT, No. 128. military department in contemplation in framing that clause: It is evident that the legislature, in describing the persons to fill offices of great trust and responsibility in India, could not intend to restrict the government of India to that class of the servants of the honourable company, which cannot, at any period of their service, in the civil branch of the service, be qualified to discharge properly the duties of secretary to the government in the military department. 101. If, however, the clause of the act abovestated, be susceptible of a contrary construction, it appears to be indispensably necessary, consistently with the principles described in the preceding paragraphs, with the due and proper performance of the duties of the government in the military department, and with the interests of the company and of the state, that the court should confirm the proceedings of the government for employing a military officer to discharge the details of the duties of the government in the military department, and should adopt measures in concert with his majesty's ministers, for having the clause of the act of the 33d of his majesty so modified or explained, as will admit of the government selecting a person to fill the office of secretary to the government in the military department, from the only class of the company's servants which can be qualified to discharge the complicated, laborious, and important duties of that office. 102. The progressive increase of the duties in the military department having rendered it extremely difficult for the secretary in that department to conduct the business of his office with that degree of regularity and dispatch which are essentially necessary to the proper course of the public service; the state of captain Hook's health having also required additional aid in the office, and the details, in that department, being of such a nature, that the assistance required in the secretary's office could only be assorded by a public officer, the governor-general in council appointed captain Hill to be assistant, in October, 1803, to the secretary of government in the military department, with a salary of 500 rupees, or 60 per mensem. 103. It appears, therefore, that captain Hook has been continued in his office, and that captain Hill has been appointed his assistant, on grounds entirely connected with the publis service. Both of these gentlemen are unknown to lord Wellesley, excepting by their public characters. The court of directors may certainly compel the government of Bengal to dismiss them, and to appoint civil servants to their situations. In this case it would be much more advantageous to abolish the office altogether, than to give the government the nominal assistance of persons in one of the most important departments of the service, who must be utterly unqualified to perform their duties, and whose appointments will only tend to prevent the government from obtaining such information as they may require, from military officers attached to the staff